Tornado Alley (PROG)

[fuagf]

How Trump thrives in ‘news deserts’

"Stormy Daniels, Flouting NDA, Details Trump Affair To ‘60 Minutes’
Trump “knows I’m telling the truth,” Daniels said."

Relentless use of social media and partisan outlets helped him swamp Clinton and exceed Romney’s performance in places lacking trusted local news outlets.

By SHAWN MUSGRAVE and MATTHEW NUSSBAUM

04/08/2018 05:00 PM EDT

[...]

The results show a clear correlation between low subscription rates and Trump’s success in the 2016 election, both against Hillary Clinton and when compared to Romney in 2012. Those links were statistically significant even when accounting for other factors that likely influenced voter choices, such as college education and employment, suggesting that the decline of local media sources by itself may have played a role in the election results.

That gives new force to the widely voiced concerns of news-industry professionals and academicians about Trump’s ability to make bold assertions about crime rates, unemployment and other verifiable facts without any independent checks. Those concerns, which initially were raised during the campaign, were largely based on anecdotes and observations. POLITICO’s analysis suggests that Trump did, indeed, do worse overall in places where independent media could check his claims.

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/04/08/news-subscriptions-decline-donald-trump-voters-505605

Which suggests many voters in fact are interested in what fact checkers have to say.